Supporting the Implementation of the Transformative and Urgent 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Understanding the information and knowledge needs of those implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is prerequisite and a challenge for making the abundant knowledge derived from Earth observation and science usable. The urgency in the 2030 Agenda requires working at unprecedented pace and the organizations supporting the Agenda have to be responsive and agile. The transformative nature of the 2030 Agenda requires a new mindset. New ways of thinking and working for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will lead to experimentation, innovation, and capacity building. Processes and tools need to be created for simplifying and translating the abundantly available knowledge into forms that are relevant, timely and actionable for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

Developing a Collaborative Platform in Support of the Implementation and Monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals with Earth Observation and Model-Based Knowledge

Achieving the sustainable development targeted by the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) depends on information and knowledge derived from Earth observations and models. GEO has the convening power to bring together those who can generate the knowledge and those who use the knowledge in developing and implementing policies for SDG implementation and monitoring. GEO also can facilitate and contribute to the development of a collaborative platform where providers, scientists, and policy makers can work together to co-design, co-create, and co-use the knowledge for monitoring and implementing the SDGs.

SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE WORKSHOP

The workshop aimed to facilitate the development of a collaborative platform where providers, scientists, and policy makers can work together in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The workshop focused on specific examples, in particular those SDGs scheduled for reviewing by the High-Level Political Forum 2017. The workshop provided a forum to review the knowledge needs associated with the monitoring and implementation of the SDGs. Science communities can help to generate the required knowledge and translate it into actionable forms. Decision and policy makers engaged in the monitoring and implementation of the SDGs benefit from having improved access to applicable knowledge and knowledge-creating tools. A platform incorporating this knowledge and tool set would support building new capacity in using this knowledge for policy making and the planning of action to implement the SDGs.

The development of evidence-based policy options that consider the SDG interactions must have a high priority. The scoping of a collaborative platform that would support the development of policy options accounting for SDG interactions, allow for gap analyses, and provide access to knowledge, including the documentation of use case and stories, was the theme linking the different parts of the workshop. Importantly, the relationship of such a platform to other effort such as the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data and the SDG Knowledge Action Network of “Future Earth” was considered.

The objectives of the workshop were to:

Explore approaches to linking the Earth observation communities engaged in GEO to those communities monitoring the progress towards SDG targets;

Better understand the needs to support through observations and models the policy development for SDG target implementation;

Discuss gaps in observation and modeling support for SDG monitoring and implementation and means to address these gaps;

Scope a collaborative platform, which supports the co-creation of and access to the knowledge required for the implementation and monitoring of SDGs, including initial considerations of the institutional framework the platform is meant to support.

The workshop specifically focused on one or more of the SDGs scheduled to be reviewed by the High-Level Political Forum 2017 (July-10-19, 2017, UNHQ, New York, see https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/hlpf). These are: